Chapter 25
A FEW MOMENTS EARLIER, Mira and Eizenfald had been in conflict.
Due to the spirit chimera putting some distance between itself and Eizenfald out of fear, there was a slight break in the battle.
“My apologies,” Mira was saying sheepishly. “Last time I flew on your back, I got a stern talking-to due to the commotion your size caused…”
The first time Mira summoned Eizenfald in this new reality, she’d told the dragon that she would probably summon him many more times to come. But unfortunately, Cleos had warned her that it would cause a panic if she flew on him near human settlements, so she hadn’t summoned the poor emperor since.
“You could have told me that sooner. The thought of being forgotten by my mother left me so lonely.”
It had been nearly a month of neglect. One could hardly blame the creature for pouting. Mira felt genuinely bad that she’d hurt his feelings.
“You are absolutely right. I’m so sorry. It may not make up for it, but I promise that I’ll do anything I can to make it right. So…think you can forgive me?” She bowed her head in genuine apology and glanced up at Eizenfald. The dragon’s demeanor changed all at once.
“Anything… Anything, Mother?! It’s a promise! If you break another promise, I’ll… I’ll hate you forever!” He was clearly happy. However, Eizenfald did his best to feign stubbornness as he accepted Mira’s proposal.
“My word is my bond. I swear I’ll keep this promise. I wouldn’t want my beloved son hating me, after all.” Mira approached and gently touched Eizenfald.
“Mother!” He crouched down and nuzzled his face against Mira. Thus, the bond between parent and child was restored.
***
“Here it comes!” Alfina declared.
At Gregorius’s command, the spirit chimera attacked. Its awe-inspiring presence, with power rivaling that of a natural disaster, sent tension running all throughout Mira’s troops. But Mira herself laughed it off; she was used to that tension. She ordered Eizenfald, “Meet its charge, my son!”
“Yes, Mother!”
Soon the battlefield was ruled by the dragon’s intimidating presence. The dragon’s fighting spirit was enough to even make Alfina and her sisters shudder in despair; this aura contained something even stronger than the fear of death.
Clad in this power, Eizenfald leapt into action. He closed in in the blink of an eye, colliding with the spirit chimera’s destructive storm. Eizenfald’s black claws crossed with the lightning-enveloped claws of the spirit chimera. When they met, the air shook, and a hefty shockwave spread around them.
Either thanks to their difference in experience or as a result of Eizenfald’s real intelligence, his claws and fangs began to dig into the spirit chimera with each clash. However, the spirit chimera armed with the might of nature itself had not lost. It healed itself with its enormous power and got its revenge slowly, using its clashing elements to dig into Eizenfald’s own defenses.
Calamity versus disaster—the scene was beyond human ken. The world itself seemed to sway, each and every movement ushering forth greater destruction. In the face of this fierce battle, the floors and ceiling gradually broke, crumbled, and charred.
The duel was one beyond human limits. Eizenfald’s tail, thicker than the biggest trees, swept across the spirit chimera’s torso. There was a sound like trees collapsing as the chimera was launched away. The room in which the two fought was over two hundred meters long and wide, but despite being launched from the center of it, the chimera collided into the back wall without even touching the ground.
“It’s not stable… Without the Spirit King’s power, it’s just not possible to hold that much power together,” Gregorius grumbled to himself with a grimace as he watched the battle unfold. It seemed the Spirit King’s power was necessary to bring the spirit chimera to its perfect, final form.
The battlefield, essentially an impenetrable domain at this point, had moved farther away. Gregorius turned to watch the fight, giving Mira the opportunity to get behind him and swing her white staff. “Stay focused, now!”
Lightning crackled—the effect of Gregorius’s spirit gear. He was being protected by the great spiritual power within.
“Nkh… You’re nothing like a normal summoner!” He glared at Mira hatefully, whipped out the sword at his hip, and swung. It was a spirit blade, which created a vortex of fire that swallowed Mira.
This is quite a bit weaker than the last one.
When they first met, Gregorius had used a fire spirit blade that was originally a sword of his father’s creation. Mira quickly summoned a Holy Knight to defend herself from the flames, but she noticed that this sword’s fire was magnitudes weaker than the last.
Alfina took this opportunity to smack the sword out of Gregorius’s hand. She held her own blade up to his throat. The spirit-sourced fire guttered.
“I’d say things are already settled between us.” Mira stepped out from behind her Holy Knight, gazed into Gregorius’s eyes, and said, “Your chance of victory is zero. It would be wise to admit defeat now.”
Gregorius did not answer. He looked at Mira, then to the Valkyrie Sisters, and then to the distant battle.
The battle between Eizenfald and the spirit chimera raged on, but Gregorius’s power as a mage was far too inferior to Mira’s for him to topple her with the aid of his gear alone. There were also seven Valkyries on her side who excelled at hand-to-hand combat. Mira was right; winning would be impossible. Gregorius was painfully aware of that. On top of that, he knew that the incomplete chimera couldn’t defeat that dragon.
World’s a lot bigger than I thought…
He recalled everything so far: the days he’d spent as a member of Chimera Clausen, the ultimate power he’d received as a result… And he chuckled. Their magnum opus, something they’d believed had the power to change the world, was in the process of being torn to shreds by one little girl.
“Fine…” He looked quietly down at the sword pressed to his neck and held his hands up. In this pose of surrender, he heaved a great sigh.
Then, his robes burst into flames and exploded.
The explosion was small, but it was still enough to make Alfina shrink back, giving him a moment of opportunity.
At the sound of the boom and the sight of the black smoke rising from it, Mira wondered if he’d decided to end it all in a suicide attack. However, seconds later, a figure tore through the black smoke. It was a horse-like golem with Gregorius on its back, running off at incredible speed.
It beelined for a door diagonal to the spirit chimera. Gregorius had accepted defeat and chosen escape. However, this did not mean giving up; his eyes had the gleam of someone plotting to return another day. And the further away he got, the stronger that gleam grew.
The horse golem sped away, faster than a racehorse.
“Allow me.” The second sister of the Valkyries, Elezina, nocked an arrow and aimed for its back. Out of all her sisters, she was most skilled with a bow.
Her arrow was like a ray of light. It struck exactly where she’d aimed, digging into the golem and destroying it in one blow.
“Gah! This is madness!” Tossed into the air, Gregorius gazed at the shattered golem and fumed in anger. Golems could be healed with mana as long as they still had an intact core, but Elezina had perfectly pierced the core from over a hundred meters away. The core was only a few centimeters wide, and moreover, the mage chose its location upon creation. That meant she’d pinpointed its spot within the golem at a glance. Truly, she was beyond the realm of a master.
Gregorius couldn’t help but grin slightly at the feat. At the end of his line of sight was the spirit chimera, even farther away now than it had been before. He sucked a deep breath in and shouted, “With your wings as sacrif—” But before he could finish, his mouth was sealed, preventing him from completing the incantation.
“Sorry. It’s over.” Mira had clamped her hand over his mouth. She’d seen him use voice commands to activate those self-destructing dolls before, and she wasn’t about to let it happen again. Shortly after, there was a slight rumble of thunder.
[Immortal Arts Earth: Violet Spark]
The merciless attack struck Gregorius, and he instantly lost consciousness. He fell silently to the ground.
“I wonder what he was trying to do there,” Christina murmured as she wrapped up Gregorius in Mira’s binding cloth. His last attempt had ended in failure, but she found herself curious about what he would have done if Mira hadn’t interfered.
“Move your hands instead of your lips.” Her musings were shut down by Alfina’s stern reprimand.
“Okaaay…” Christina poked her lip out in a pout.
Mira found herself smiling at the two sisters. Christina’s chatter had nothing to do with the battle; it was mere casual conversation. Mira was moved; the act showed that she had a real mind and feelings, something that would never have manifested in-game.
“He said something about a sacrifice of wings, no?” Mira wondered. “I would assume that he planned to use that chimera’s wings as a spirit bomb. Presumably, he’d put distance between himself and the chimera to keep himself from getting caught in the blast.”
“I see… You’re wicked smart, Master!” Christina smiled in satisfaction.
“Christina! Do not address the Master so casually!” Alfina scolded her once more.
An impish younger sister, a mature older sister. Mira’s smile grew wider as she watched their exchange.
“Master, please excuse my sister’s rudeness.”
Mira felt at peace, but Alfina considered her like a king. Even in this reality, her devotion could not be swayed.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You sisters have saved me many times over by now, so that was trivial at most,” Mira responded.
“Thank you for your tolerance, Master.” Alfina bowed her head even deeper, with an oddly ecstatic look on her face.
Her other sisters kneeled to Mira with happy smiles as well. Christina was the exception; she flashed a smug grin at her oldest sister. That was the face of someone who derived a great amount of confidence from the knowledge that Mira wouldn’t get mad at her for speaking her mind.
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